Aston Villa demonstrated their powers of recovery to draw against Liverpool in the Premier League on Monday night and edge closer toward a place in next season’s Champions League – an accomplishment now sealed – but where did it all start?....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
Did it start when Unai Emery was anointed as Steven Gerrard’s successor in October 2022, tasked with lifting an outfit boasting talent but unable to mesh it all together?
Did it start one year ago, when Brighton & Hove Albion were defeated at a deafening Villa Park on the final day of the 2022/23 campaign to secure seventh and a place in the Europa Conference League?
EUROPE IS CALLING pic.twitter.com/JrHTjlShBg
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 28, 2023
Or did it start when Jack Grealish was sold to Manchester City in a British-record £100m transfer back in August 2021? The captain was a lionised figure in the Midlands but such lucrative reward was hardly able to be turned down in good conscience.
Might Aston Villa now be coming full circle, with those aforementioned powers of recovery used quite literally, to bring an icon back home?
Aston Villa eyeing stunning coup
According to Football Insider, Villa director Monchi is indeed plotting a stunning bid to bring Grealish back to Villa Park after the England international was deemed one of the more expendable superstars in Pep Guardiola’s team.
The 28-year-old has enjoyed a mixed campaign after thriving throughout last year’s treble-winning season and though he’s contracted until 2027, the Etihad Stadium side may well move to cash in for a lucrative amount while they can.
Jack Grealish’s season in numbers
Grealish has amassed 125 appearances in the three campaigns he’s been at Man City but he’s only scored 14 goals and supplied 18 assists in this timeframe.
This season, in all competitions, Grealish has only posted three goals and three assists apiece across 36 matches, and while he’s never been the most prolific of wingers, that is not his game, it does represent a decrease, reflecting his diminished importance under Guardiola.
Watching Grealish glide on the football pitch is a thing of beauty 😍#UCL pic.twitter.com/ZzpUFwseQc
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 21, 2023
These qualities are showcased through Grealish’s FBref metrics, where he ranks among the top 4% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for pass completion, the top 2% for successful take-ons, the top 5% for touches in the attacking penalty area and the top 18% for shot-creating actions per 90.
For all his glittering talent, Grealish is a cog in a many-layered system, albeit described as “world-class” by pundit Dean Saunders in the past. At Aston Villa, he was a figurehead of legendary status, truly staggering in his performance level and galvanising effect.
Imagine Ollie Watkins & Jack Grealish
If Emery’s outfit were to succeed in bringing Grealish back to the club this summer, he would offer something that no other can bring to the table, with his fleet feet, deft dribbling and artful motions across the frontline adding a dimension to a team that is already blessed with an abundance of quality in the front third.
Villa Park’s current creme of the crop is Watkins, who has spearheaded the exploits over the term to emphatic effect, scoring 27 goals and adding 13 assists in all competitions and being hailed as “virtually unplayable” by The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell.
#OnThisDay in 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣0️⃣, @AVFCOfficial put seven goals past Liverpool in a thrilling encounter at Villa Park
⚽️ Watkins 4'
⚽️ Watkins 22'
⚽️ Salah 33'
⚽️ McGinn 35'
⚽️ Watkins 39'
⚽️ Barkley 55'
⚽️ Salah 60'
⚽️ Grealish 66'
⚽️ Grealish 75' pic.twitter.com/YyWEvp88p2— Premier League (@premierleague) October 4, 2021
It’s not like Watkins and Grealish haven’t enjoyed success together in the past, with Grealish offering the creative, talismanic spirit during his Three Lions teammate’s first year at the club, signing from Brentford in a club-record £28m.
The clip above shows Villa decimating Liverpool 7-2 at Villa Park, with Watkins bagging a hat-trick and Grealish contributing toward two goals and a hat-trick of assists.
Grealish served Watkins up for his first two goals in a Villan shirt on that incredible day, with the centre-forward repaying the favour to pass to his playmaking peer for his first strike.
This was an Aston Villa team still several years away from reaching its potential, under Emery, and it would be a wonderful partnership that could see the club find success across domestic competitions and under the European lights next year.
Not just a fluke either, Watkins would go on to plunder 14 goals and five assists across 37 Premier League matches that season.
Grealish, in comparison, remarkably created 14 big chances from 26 matches that term, averaging 3.2 key passes, 2.5 dribbles and 8.9 successful duels per outing. This is an extraordinary level of performance and reforging the erstwhile bond at club level could lift player and club.
The table above highlights a downswing in prolificness since moving away from Aston Villa, with his role at Manchester City characterised by a sharp tactical understanding of his distinctive deployment within the system.
To put it another way, where once Grealish played with the freedom of a lion in the wilderness, now he is caged in a more grounded, intricate position, tasked with performing high and wide to stretch the opposition and open up space for his more clinical teammates – roll up, roll up Erling Haaland.
Football is cyclical. It is a never-ending, brilliant rotation of results, twists, turns, ups, downs and all. Might Aston Villa be preparing to make moves to epitomise the circular nature of the game, and indeed bring Grealish back to the club in a 360 transfer venture?
Whether it would be worth the effort remains to be seen at this point but Grealish knows the club, knows the city. He’s a high-class player with a singular skill set that might prove to give Emery’s operation an additional dimension to continue this remarkable journey to heights uncharted in many, many years.
